Create Cache Task

In order to improve the access speed of disks which are of interest to you, you need to set up a cache task for these disks. PrimoCache provides a wizard to help you easily create a new cache task. Click on the icon button in the command toolbar to start the wizard, and then follow the directions in the wizard screens, as described in the following sections.

Step 1: Select Destination Volumes

This wizard page prompts you to choose the destination volumes that will be accelerated by data caching. Check the box next to the desired volume, and then click Next. You can choose one or multiple (up to 16) volumes which can even be on different physical disks. Please note that in this page do not choose the volume of a SSD or USB3.0 flash drive, that you will convert to a dedicated cache device to accelerate other disks.

Step 2: Choose Profile

On this wizard page, choose the goal of this new cache task, whether the disk reading or writing or both should be improved. This step is auxiliary and used to give you a suggested cache configuration in the next step. No matter which profile you choose here, you are able to adjust all cache settings completely in the next page.

Please note that if you choose "Write" or "Read & Write" PrimoCache will enable the Defer-Write feature by default in the next page in order to improve the disk write performance. However, a power outage or system failure might result in data loss or corruption. See Defer-Write.

Step 3: Configure Parameters

This wizard page is to configure the parameters for the cache task. For your convenience, PrimoCache presets the parameters based on the profile chosen in the previous step. You can adjust them to best fit your needs. When you move your mouse over any parameter field, a tool tip will display helping you be familiar with this parameter and quickly decide the optimal value. For a comprehensive definitions of cache configuration parameters, see Configuration Terms.

If you have some physical memory not visible to Windows OS, usually this happening in 32-bit Windows with 4GB or more memory installed, you can use this hidden memory as cache to speed up disks. Click on the button to enable the Invisible Memory feature if this is the first time you use Invisible Memory. For additional help on how to set up Invisible Memory, see UIMMI.

If your computer has both mechanical hard disks (HDDs) and solid-state disks (SSDs) or USB3.0 flash drives installed, you are able to use a portion or all of the SSD or flash drive as a cache device to accelerate HDDs. To do so, you need to create a dedicated level-2 storage volume on the SSD or flash drive first. Click on the button to pop up the format dialog to convert a normal volume into a level-2 storage volume if you haven't had one. See Creating Level-2 Storage for more help.

If your computer has only HDDs or only SSDs installed, you have no need to set up level-2 cache, just leaving it greyed or setting the size to 0.

The following figure shows an example of the cache configuration with both Invisible Memory cache and SSD cache in addition to normal memory cache.

When you finish the configuration, click Start to create this new cache task. Once it is successfully created, data caching for these chosen volumes will start working immediately, no reboots or additional configuration needed. You can see this new cache task in the PrimoCache main dialog and monitor its cache status and statistics.

The cache task keeps working even you exit the PrimoCache application, and automatically starts with Windows startup. You have to explicitly stop the caching when you don't need it any more.

Now enjoy the benefits gained from the data caching. At first, you may not notice much performance improvement, but this is due to the simple fact that no data has yet been stored to the cache. As you continue to use the computer, more and more data will get saved to the cache, resulting in better and better system performance.